When you must register
If you'll be living in the Netherlands for longer than 4 months, you must register as a resident with the gemeente in the BRP (Personal Records Database).
You must do this within 5 days of arriving in the Netherlands. You register at your permanent home address. If you do not have a permanent home address, you can sometimes register at a correspondence address, for example if you work as inland waterways crew or stay in an institution such as a prison, psychiatric institution or women’s refuge. The official government explanation is on Government.nl.
This rule does not apply in the same way to everyone. If you do not live in the Netherlands, or you will stay for less than 4 months, you do not register as a resident. In that case you can register as a non-resident in the RNI (Non-residents Records Database) using your address abroad, and you can still receive a BSN. The BRP also contains data about non-residents, including people who have left the Netherlands or who are here for a shorter period for work or study.
There are also cases where you cannot register in the BRP immediately. You must legally be a resident in the Netherlands, so you may first need a residence permit. Your identity must also be confirmed. That can mean extra investigation or a request for more information. If your residence position is still being arranged, check your permit status with IND.
Bring your partner and children with you if they have also come to live in the Netherlands.
What to bring to the appointment
Your first appointment is about proving who you are and showing the gemeente where and how you should be registered.
The government pages here do not give one national checklist for every municipality, so the safe point is this: you must be able to confirm your identity, and if information later needs correcting, you must show documentary evidence together with your identity documents. For example, if data in the BRP is wrong or incomplete, the government says you should take proof such as a birth certificate or marriage certificate and your identity documents to the municipality, so the municipality can see why the record must be changed.
That tells you what matters at the first appointment too. Your identity has to be confirmed before registration is completed, and in some cases the municipality may ask for more information or carry out extra investigation. If your partner or children are registering with you as new residents, they must come with you to the municipality when they have also moved to the Netherlands.
Short stay? Different route.
If you are staying less than 4 months, you are in the non-resident route, not the resident registration route. Then your address abroad is used for the RNI registration.
You do not need to wait until later to think about your residence position. One of the stated exceptions is that you may need a residence permit first, because you must legally be a resident in the Netherlands before resident registration can be completed. That is why some newcomers can make the appointment quickly while others are asked for extra steps first.
What you receive after registering
After you register, you are automatically given a BSN (citizen service number).
The BSN is your unique personal number in Dutch government systems. Everyone who registers in the BRP gets one automatically. You will use it when you contact the government, and the government uses it to process your personal data across services so you do not need to provide the same information again and again. The official government page about the number is here: BSN on Government.nl.
This number becomes relevant fast. You need it for contacts with the government, for example for care or taxes. In healthcare, recognised care providers such as a huisarts (GP) and a zorgverzekeraar (health insurer) must use the BSN. In education, the same number is also used as the personal identification number or education number. For childcare benefit, housing benefit and healthcare benefit, organisations also use BSNs to check information.
One number. Many uses.
The point of the BSN is also to reduce errors and help prevent identity fraud. Government organisations can exchange personal details more accurately when they use the same unique number, and each organisation must make sure you are using your own BSN. Non-government organisations cannot simply use it because they want to; they may only use it where the law requires this, such as certain healthcare organisations.
If you are following your civic integration process, keep your official details up to date in your DUO account as well. You can check your personal inburgering status on Inburgeren.nl.
What data the BRP holds
The BRP stores a set of personal data about residents, and a smaller set for non-residents.
If you are registered as a resident, the BRP includes data about your name, date of birth and place of birth, sex, address, BSN, nationality, residence status if you come from another country, voting rights, travel documents, parents, child or children if you have them, and your partner if you are married or have a registered partnership. Municipalities record this data for all residents, and they also record updates such as a marriage, the birth of a child, or a change of address.
Some changes happen automatically. If you marry in the Netherlands, for instance, the Registrar of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Registered Partnerships informs the municipality. When you register the birth of your child, the child is automatically entered in the BRP if both parents are registered in the BRP on the day of birth. Other changes are your job to report, such as a new address when you move house.
If you are registered as a non-resident, the RNI contains fewer data items. These include your name, date of birth and place of birth, sex, address outside the Netherlands, BSN, nationality and residence status if you come from another country. The government explains the resident and non-resident data sets on Rijksoverheid.
Your personal data in the BRP is stored permanently. When an organisation accesses personal data from the BRP, a record of that access is kept for 20 years.
Who is allowed to see it
Not every organisation may look at your BRP data, and not every organisation may see all of it.
Only organisations with a public or social function can access data from the BRP. They may only view the data they need to do their work. In practice, this means mostly government organisations, for tasks such as paying pensions, benefits and allowances, collecting tax, issuing a passport or driving licence, and sending voting cards for elections. A municipality can also provide personal data to organisations or companies with a social function, such as housing associations, but this must be arranged in a municipal regulation.
There is a formal permission process behind this. If an organisation wants BRP data, it must submit a request to the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. The request must say exactly which people, which data and which public tasks are involved. The minister then checks whether the law allows the organisation to receive that data, with attention to privacy. If the answer is yes, the organisation receives an authorisation decision.
Privacy rules matter here.
The rules for use and access are set out in the Personal Records Database Act, and your personal data is also protected more generally by the Personal Data Protection Act. Access to the BRP is protected, and a record is kept of anyone who sees or changes data so misuse can be traced. The Dutch Data Protection Authority monitors whether the rules are being followed.
You also have the right to know how your personal data is used. The general government page on personal data explains that organisations must protect your information and that you have the right to know how it is used.
Moving and deregistering
You must report address changes yourself, and the rule changes again if you leave the Netherlands for a longer period.
If you move to another municipality in the Netherlands, you must register with your new municipality. The municipality you are leaving will make sure you are deregistered there. If you move to a new address within the same municipality, that change must also be registered, and sometimes this can be done online. When someone moves to another municipality, their personal data moves with them.
If your BRP details are wrong or incomplete, you can ask for them to be changed. Take documentary evidence and your identity documents to the municipality. For example, a birth certificate or marriage certificate can show why an item in the BRP is incorrect. If you are a non-resident instead, you go to an RNI desk to update your information.
Leaving the country has its own deadline rule, and this one is based on time abroad during one year. If you will stay outside the Netherlands for more than 8 months in a period of one year, you must report this to the municipality. This also applies if you keep your home in the Netherlands. Officially, you are then no longer living in the Netherlands, and your BRP registration changes from resident to non-resident. The government explanation is on Rijksoverheid.
If your address abroad changes after that, you can report the new address to the Rijksdienst voor Identiteitsgegevens, which updates the BRP and passes the change to organisations such as the Belastingdienst or your pension fund.
What the KNM exam asks about this
The KNM part asks about daily government procedures like registering with the gemeente, the BRP, and the BSN.
Expect practical situations in Dutch, not legal theory. A question may ask what you must do if you move, when you must register after arrival, or why you need a BSN for government contact, healthcare or tax. You may also see the difference between living in the Netherlands as a resident and a shorter stay as a non-resident.
For official civic integration information, exam parts and booking, use DUO’s inburgering pages. For free official practice material, use DUO practice materials.